Production will begin next spring in the South
Pacific.
Crowe's involvement in The Long Green Shore
will answer the riddle of numerous studio executives who've wondered why the seemingly available
Crowe has been turning down their highest-profile films. Even though
he could make much more money as an actor coming off his Oscar-winning stint
in Gladiator and The Insider, Crowe has put
everything aside to film a novel that puts into context Australia's involvement in WWII.
"The Long Green Shore" tells the story
of an Australian battalion that arrives on the beaches of New Guinea with orders to beat back
the retreating Japanese. The men are greeted by the corpses of Americans and
Japanese, remnants of earlier bloody warfare and a reminder of their dubious
purpose there.
The war against Germany in Europe is over and
the Japanese resolve has weakened to the point where it's a foregone conclusion that WWII
will end shortly. Pushed by a hard-nosed commander, the battalion presses
on, engaging starving and straggling Japanese battalions in bloody
battles.
The book has meditative qualities, as the battalion
members ponder the fragility of life and the notion of obligation to fight under
their flag
even when waging battles that serve more political than practical
purposes.
Crowe could play the commander or any one of
about a dozen other roles, including a character who narrates the entire tale.
He will produce the Intermedia-funded picture
with Mark Johnson (What Lies Beneath) after rewriting the existing script by Bob Ellis,
who was a friend and collaborator of the book's late writer, John Hepworth. The
film will be Crowe's followup project to the Ron Howard-directed A Beautiful
Mind for Imagine.
The collaboration between Crowe, Sinclair and
producer Johnson has been years in the making. Sinclair met Crowe when Intermedia had just
gotten off the ground with "Sliding Doors" and Crowe's star was
just beginning to take off after L.A. Confidential.
When Crowe revealed his interest in the book
and his determination to get behind the camera, Intermedia partner Nigel Sinclair secured rights
to the book right away. Intermedia will seek to set up the midbudget
film with a domestic partner.
Crowe becomes the latest leading man to move
behind the camera, with Denzel Washington about to start production on the Fox Searchlight drama
Finding Fish [Antwone Fisher] and George Clooney preparing Confessions of a
Dangerous Mind at Miramax.
Crowe's more immediate assignment will be touring
the U.S. this month as the front man for the band Thirty Odd Foot of Grunts. Once he's finished rocking, he will shut himself away to work on the script and prep
the movie for the spring shoot.